The frying pan mystery - July 8
As I looked around the interior one could see evidence of the materials used to construct the cabin. There was evidence of orange crates, wooden nail boxes and various crate type wood with labels of some nature or another nailed on the floor and walls. For many years this cabin was nestled in the back at Johnson’s Resort. The owner Alex Melenchuck hailed from Macklin, Saskatchewan where he operated the local dry goods store, hence the wooden crates and such. Alex was fish crazy, there was hardly a time he came alone, and he was forever introducing someone to the sport from family to grandchildren and many Macklin residents. One in particular was Dick Lim, a Chinese restaurateur from Macklin. Although I never knew him, I knew his frying pan. It was the largest frying pan I had ever seen and apparently when Dick was at Ministikwan Lake he was always seen either flipping fish or making fried rice in that majorly over sized frying pan. The handle by itself was at least 20 inches long and the pan was no less than 24 inches in diameter. When Alex moved up onto the First Nation I had tried to purchase that pan, without success. So when I saw the gutted cabin I was naturally curious of the whereabouts of that frying pan. Perhaps Alex had taken it with him when he abandoned the cabin, as no doubt it held many camp fire memories from Ministikwan Lake. |
